XIII.] THE LESSER BIRD OF PARADISE. 307 



ship for any length of time, which we were not particularly 

 anxious to do. 



We had intended to make our first excursion to Kaiari, a 

 small island close to our anchorage, but the natives rather eagerly 

 dissuaded us from doing so, saying that it was staked in every 

 direction with sharp -pointed bamboos in case of raids by the 

 Alfuros. We did not believe the story at the time, and afterwards 

 discovered that they buried, or rather exposed, their dead upon the 

 island, which was possibly the cause of their unwillingness to let 

 us shoot there. Our first search was for water, and we were 

 rewarded by the discovery of a clear stream on the mainland not 

 far from the mouth of the channel, in close proximity to which 

 sago-washing had been carried on in exactly the same manner as 

 we had remarked in Batchian.^ The forest w^as tolerably open, 

 and here for the first time we saw the Lesser Bird of Paradise (P. 

 minor) streaming through the trees like a golden comet. Its 

 restless habits render it most difficult to shoot. Like the closely- 

 allied and well-known Faradisea apoda of the Aru Islands, it has 

 regular "play trees," where in the breeding- season the males 

 assemble and display their exquisite plumage before an admiring 

 circle of females ; but neither here nor in Waigiou, where, according 

 to the natives, the Eed Bird of Paradise has the same habits, were 

 we fortunate enough to witness this extraordinary sight. We also 

 came across the little King-bird, which Mr. Wallace has described 

 as " one of the most perfectly lovely of the many lovely productions 

 of Nature," " a gem of the first water," and indeed in writing of the 

 happily -named birds of Paradise — perhaps the most exquisitely 

 beautiful of all living creatures — each of which seems to surpass 

 the last in the glory of its colouring and the marvellous eccentricity 

 of its plumage, it is difficult to find words to express the sense of 

 admiration they arouse when seen for the first time in their native 

 land. As the naturalist tenderly and lovingly handles some new 



1 Among the Geelviiik Bay Papuans sago is eaten by means of two rough cliop- 

 sticks very much like those used by the Chinese. 



